Criminal Justice and the Ideal Defendant in the Making of Remorse and Responsibility

Stewart Field is Professor of Law at the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University, UK.Cyrus Tata is Professor of Law and Criminal Justice at Strathclyde University Law School, UK, where he is director of the Centre for Law, Crime & Justice.

This book investigates how defendants are assessed by criminal justice decisionmakers, such as judges, lawyers, probation officers, parole board members and those involved in restorative justice. What attitudes and emotions are defendants expected to show? How are these expectations communicated?The book argues that defendants, at various stages of the criminal justice process, are expected to show a (more or less) free acceptance of guilt and individual responsibility along with a display of 'appropriate' emotions, ideally including 'genuine' remorse. It examines why such expressions of individualresponsibility and remorse are so important to decision-makers and the state.With contributors from across the world, the book opens new comparative possibilities and research agendas.

Part 1: The Making of Remorse and Responsibility1. Locating the Ideal Defendant: Punishment, Violence and LegitimacyStewart Field and Cyrus Tata2. Remorse in the French Criminal Justice System: A Subterranean InfluenceVirginie Gautron3. Constructing remorse: Interactional dimensions of finding an emotionSharyn Roach Anleu and Kathy Mack4. Constructing Ideal Defendants in the Pre-Sentence Phase: The Connection Between Responsibility and Potential RemorseLouise Victoria Johansen5. The Paradoxical Uses of 'Culture' in Judicial Assessment of Defendant Demeanour and Remorse.Irene Van Oorschot6. Cultural Sensitivity Training, Judicial Feelings, and Everyday Practice: Conversations at the edge of researchKate RossmanithPart 2: Beyond Remorse7. Remorse is Not Enough: Disentangling the Roles of Remorse and Insight in the Construction of the Ideal DefendantRichard Weisman8. The Construction of the Ideal Defendant: Comparative Understandings of the Normalisation of GuiltJacqueline S. Hodgson9. Looking for the Ideal Parole Applicant?Nicola PadfieldPart 3: The Political and Cultural Significance of Remorse and Responsibility10. The Enactment of Political Cultures in Criminal Court Process: Remorse, Responsibility and the Unique Individual Before the French cours d'assisesStewart Field11. Punishment and the 'Blind Symbiosis' of Legal and Rehabilitation Work in the Making of the 'Ideal' DefendantCyrus Tata12. Remorse and Restoration: The Role of Remorse in Constructing the 'Ideal Offender' of Restorative JusticeGiuseppe Maglione